by Settle Myer
Commander Dyson begins. “Trinity's plan is slowly coming together. We have added more security to the transport van. We're still trying to pinpoint the group of rebels planning to help Hyde escape. They’re planting decoys, and it’s slowing our teams down. We do believe they’re going to hit at the portal.”
“Where is the portal?” I ask, realizing no one has told me.
“Memphis, Tennessee. That's about three hours from here,” Commander Myers says.
Commander Dyson nods before continuing. "We also have the tracking technology ready; we just need our star to record the video.”
He winks at me, and I think my panties fell down right then and there. Of course, Julian notices the wayward wink and tenses at my side. I pull his arm to me and kiss his shoulder. It relaxes him but barely. A mental image of him knocking the commander to the ground pops up in my head.
“How did you do that?” I whisper next to Julian’s ear.
“Do what?”
“I saw an image of you punching Commander Dyson.”
“You saw that?” Julian squeals in a strained yet low voice.
I nod. “It was like you sent me a mental text message of a video, and I opened it up, and there you were, knocking him to the ground.” I cover my mouth to hide my humor at the fact that Julian’s jealously leaked to my brain.
“Your Grace, we have a room set up where you can record your video. I’d like to go ahead and get it out of the way if you’re ready?” Commander Myers says.
I nod and follow her back through the rows of desks. Julian is the only one to tag along. We enter a door in the far corner of the massive control room. Barely bigger than a closet, the room reminds me of the cramped spaces where police interrogate suspects. It's small, but there’s no two-way mirror. Just a table, chair, and video camera set up.
I stop just inside. Commander Myers waves me in, but I shake my head. “There’s no way I'm going to record a video in here. It'll look like I've been taken hostage. They’ll know it’s fake.”
The Commander crosses her arms and bobs her head. “Then, what do you suggest, your Grace?”
“I don’t know. What’s a really touristy spot around here? We can record the video in a public spot, something recognizable to show them where we are?” Plus, I'd love to just have one last happy memory before we fight for our deaths. No, more like I need it.
Commander Myers holds up her hand to start counting. “Well, there’s the Parthenon, Grand Ole Opry... those are kinda far, though. The Country Music Hall of Fame and music row are somewhat close... Oh, wait. I know just the place, and it’s only a couple blocks away.”
We arrive at a breathtaking, nearly three-foot-tall mural painted on the side of a building. The massive white angel wings on a black background are filled with intricate designs of swirls and shapes. The hashtag ‘what lifts you’ is painted in the bottom left corner. We get in a short line and wait our turn. Commander Myers stands off to the side, chatting with the two guards she brought with us as a precaution.
Julian pulls his cell phone out of his tight black jeans. “Here,” he says and holds it up in front of us. “Let’s take some pictures.”
The high school girl inside me squeals with delight. This is what every girlfriend wants. Well, maybe not every one, but this shy girl who always felt average and didn’t deserve love wants all the selfies a boyfriend can offer. Is Julian my boyfriend? I can’t keep calling him my anima mate. Boyfriend it is!
Julian snaps a series of pics. Some, we make funny faces; in another one, he kisses my cheek then snuggles against the side of my face. In our last selfie, he covers my lips with his, which leads to a tiny make-out session that lasts a few minutes before Commander Myers has had enough and clears her throat.
“You’re next, your Grace. Do you know what you’re going to say?”
I nod, then turn back to Julian. “Can you take a few pictures of me in front of the wings first?”
He smiles and agrees. It’s not long before the two young girls in front of us are finished with their mini-photoshoot. I step up to the mural, making sure I'm perfectly in-between the expansive wings. I place my hands on my hips like Superman.
“And what lifts you, my dear Trinity?” Julian says, snapping away.
I point at him, and he grins like a fool. He lets me pose a few more times with the artsy wings before stepping closer.
“Okay, Trinity. I’m recording,” he says.
I briefly close my eyes and take a deep breath. Just get it over with.
“Hello, I’m Trinity Parks, and I’m the lost daughter of Angor,” I begin. “As you can see behind me, I’m in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve been on the run for the past few days, ever since my identity was revealed. I’m recording this video today to let the rebels and Hyde know I’ve received your message. Please, do not hurt the humans. I will turn myself in. Tomorrow at the portal.”
That's it. That's the message. I hold my breath until Julian nods that he’s no longer recording. I burst into tears and fall to the ground. Julian rushes over and pulls me into a hug. The commander and two guards pull me up to whisk me away before people in line start to worry.
“You did great,” Julian whispers next to my ear. He holds my hand as we walk back to the headquarters a couple of blocks away and squeezes my palm every few minutes. His magical calming button seems to feed Xanax through my blood. With every push, the anxiety crawling up my neck is squashed back down. He better watch out, or I'll soon become addicted to his touch, his nearness. Who am I kidding? I already am addicted.
After returning to the command center, Julian takes me down to the cafeteria to find food since we’ve been driving all day and haven’t eaten a real meal. I choose a burger and fries, but it sits on my plate, getting cold as I look out the second-floor window, my chin in the palm of the hand. The trees sway in a light breeze, mesmerizing me with their dance. Left, right, down, and up. I've watched the rendezvous long enough to count three birds land on branches, and three squirrels climb up and down the trunk. Are there animals on Angor? If it truly is an Earth extension, then dogs and cats and stupid squirrels exist.
“Trinity, please eat. We must keep up our energy. We never know when rebels will strike,” Julian says, pushing my plate closer to me.
I slowly start eating my cold fries. I'm able to get half of them down. Same with the burger. And it was pretty tasty for cafeteria food. Any normal day, it would have been gone in seconds, and I'd be running up to order another one. I wondered if I'd ever have another normal day. After Hyde is captured and the rebels locked up, would I get to go to the movies with Julian, have Sunday dinners with King Elijah to get to know him, go to Comic-Cons with friends? Of course, I'd have to make new friends. My mission upon returning, find my Angor version of Xoe and Chance. Even though Julian says there are no carbon copies in our alternate universe. It’s not your typical science fiction parallel world. Could it be another dimension? Perhaps early humans escaped to Angor and, over the years, evolved to receive virtues. The nerd inside me was extremely excited to learn about Angor’s history. I predict many hours in libraries and researching online.
Recording the video has put my situation into perspective, and it sends me into shutdown mode. ‘Snap out of it, Trinny,’ my foster father John Parks would say to me during my many daydreaming episodes. I wondered how they were settling into their new life. Perhaps one day, when the threat is gone, I'll be able to visit them. Julian did say their memories could be restored. Will I even want to bring them back into my life? What if I will always have a target on my back? Once Hyde is no longer a threat, will his legacy live on? Will a new enemy emerge? Perhaps leaving the Parks behind is best. My life belongs to Angor now. But for me to make it home, we have to eliminate the only person who stands in my way. Hyde. The idea of taking him down fuels my core, so I finish my food, and Julian and I head back to the command center.
“Your Grace, perfect timing,” Commander Dyson says as Julian and I approach the cente
r control panel. “The video has been sent, and rebel locations are already pouring in. We have teams setting up stakeouts, ready to move in.”
Shiloh, who must have arrived while we were recording the video or eating in the cafeteria, was off to the side on the phone. He hangs up and marches back over to us. “I just got word that the rebels following Hyde’s transport van saw Trinity’s message," he says, a hint of panic in his words. “They have a man on the inside, acting as a transport soldier. That’s how it’s going to happen. The man on the inside is going to kill the other soldiers.”
Commander Myers takes Shiloh’s intel and makes a call. The group of protectors hide their concern physically, but every ounce of anxiety emitting from their bodies is hitting me like hurricane-force winds. I close my eyes to focus on each guard’s energy, trying to separate the emotional currents so I can tuck them away into a sort of reserve. It’s a neat little trick I taught myself on the long drive from the cabin in Virginia to Nashville.
I realize that the majority of the anxiety was coming from Shiloh. The beefy man I once crushed on breathes fast. Sweat lines his forehead. I dip into his mind, and I gasp.
“What is it, your Grace?” Rosie urges, rushing to my side.
“They’re going to destroy the Portal.”
Chapter 11
“Destroy the portal? How do you know this?” Commander Dyson demands.
“She saw it in my mind,” Shiloh blurts out.
“And you weren’t going to tell us?” Reed barks and puffs out his chest like a rooster about to fight.
“Of course I was going to. I just didn’t want to believe it at first.”
“Are you guys serious?” I say, crossing my arms. “You still don’t trust Shiloh? He’s risking his life embedding with the rebels and bringing us information. Yet, everything he says or does is suspicious?”
“No disrespect, your Grace, but we’ve been burned before,” Chad says nonchalantly. He’s sitting on the edge of a desk with his arms folded and legs out crossed at the ankles.
“By who?”
“By Hyde,” Commander Myers answers after hanging up the phone.
The area where we stand goes silent. The only sounds come from people typing or talking off in another part of the control center. Tension fills the air.
Commander Myers rubs her forehead, and I sense regret as she recalls the memory. “This was a few months before you were born, your Grace. I was a first-year soldier, and Hyde was my commander. We were assigned to protect migrants seeking asylum from Malakai, a world in the middle of a civil war. See, what we didn’t know at the time, what no one knew, Hyde had found his anima mate. Her name was Bella. He told no one about her, to protect her, I assume. Still to this day, not many people knew she existed. So, Hyde leaves one night to meet with the King to discuss strategy. Bella had gone out for groceries and got into a car accident. I was one of the few in the room for that meeting. We saw Hyde experience her death, her pain while it was happening because of the anima mate connection. We saw him writhe in agony on the ground, non-stop tears pooling next to him on the floor. It was devastating. The Royal Guard escorted him home, and he arrived just as traffic investigators were covering her body with a sheet. Her death was an honest accident. The man who was behind the wheel of the car had swerved to avoid hitting a deer then hit Bella head-on.”
Commander Myers shivers, remembering the darkness she’d witnessed. A part of me wanted to watch it play out in her head. But the blood had drained from her face just by sharing the gory details. I knew I couldn’t stomach seeing it as well.
“Because the man who killed Bella was a refugee, arriving just a day before from Malakai, Hyde’s entire views on refugees flipped. He went to King Elijah, demanding to close the borders. That's when Hyde found out about the peace treaty. Malakai would end their civil war, and Angor would help them recover. Hyde was furious that his brother didn’t include him in the discussions. So, he decided to gather an army of his own and invaded their world.” Commander Myers takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. “I refused to be a part of his plan and informed the King.”
“How did Hyde convince people to join him? Did he use mind-altering virtue?” I ask.
Julian nods. “That would be my guess.”
“So, it can be used to do bad things?”
“There have been a few cases of people abusing the mind-altering virtue to force people into demeaning acts against their will,” Julian says. “But it rarely happens. And anyone who is caught using it for criminal acts is imprisoned in Hatia.”
“The point, your Grace,” Reed growls, “is that no one can be trusted. Especially the so-called double agents.”
Shiloh gets into a stance I’d only seen him do when a rowdy group of men came into Donnie’s, cursing or harassing other customers. He pounds his fist into his palm and cracks his neck. I place my hand on his chest, and he stops, dropping his tense shoulders.
Julian, who notices my hand on the muscular peck of the handsome man I used to crush on, raises an eyebrow at me. I take it away, but not because Julian wanted me to, but because I needed to address the group. I go to the middle, and everyone automatically forms a circle around me.
“You don’t think I've been inside every one of your heads? I’m a Royal, remember? I can pry past those mind shields.”
I look at the team, one-by-one, each avoiding eye contact with me.
“I’ve been digging around trying to figure out who each of you is. If you’re a danger to me. I was given these powers, and I had to learn how to use them. So, I did. And I'm sorry if you feel violated, but it was the only way for me to truly believe this was happening. Sometimes, I still don’t believe it.”
Skyler, who has been at the back snacking on chips and chugging a soda, freezes like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Yeah, I saw things.... things I did NOT need to know,” I cringe and notice the team cowering like their hand’s been caught in the cookie jar. “What I’m trying to say is, I trust every single one of you with my life. Unless you’ve buried your betrayal deep into the pits of your brain; then, wow, that’d be impressive. Just let this be a warning, I’m always listening.”
The protectors stand in silence, either not sure what to say or still trying to process the fact that I’m constantly in their brains.
Commander Dyson is the first to speak. “Shiloh, what can you tell us about the plan to destroy the portal.”
Shiloh pats me on the shoulder, thanking me for defending him. I should tell Julian that Shiloh has no interest in me whatsoever. All I ever get from him is a proud, big brother. Not to mention, I've been in his mind hoping to find any inkling that he crushed on me, but as expected, he only saw me as the annoying high school chick he was forced to work with and eventually tolerated. Now, he respects me as his future Queen. I'm also pretty sure he may not even like women. I noticed the way he was checking out Skyler yesterday. Oh! I wonder if that’s what was different about Skyler during his virtue training with me. Seriously, though. If those two could hook up, maybe that would stop Skyler from looking so forlorn every time he sees me and Julian hugging and kissing each other.
“They are planning to kill the guards at the portal then destroy the device that is bending space and time allowing for us to transport to and from Earth,” Shiloh says.
“If they destroy the portal, we will be trapped here. And no one from Angor would be able to come through to help. It could take scientists years to find another portal and create the device to keep it open.” Chanel says with urgency.
“But, WHY does he want to destroy it?” Rosie adds.
Shiloh swallows hard, struggling to get out the next words. “My source tells me Hyde no longer wants to steal the throne from King Elijah. At least, not right away. He’s been on Earth long enough to know how stupid and weak humans are. He wants to become their God.”
I burst out into laughter, and everyone turns to me like I'm crazy. “What? No one else finds this plan im
possible?”
“Why?” Chad asks.
I shift on my feet. “There are over seven billion people on Earth and thousands of deities they believe in. Does he really expect to convert every one of them?”
“I don’t think he wants to be worshipped like you would Jesus Christ or Allah,” Shiloh begins. “I think he wants to use his virtues and present himself as a superhero. Gain Earth’s trust, then build his empire to take over.”
“That doesn’t even make sense. Didn’t he hate the direction my parents were taking on Angor with peace and acceptance? There are just as many problems on Earth, more actually. Poverty, hunger, political differences, race inequality... the list could go on.”
“I see this as Hyde wanting power. Ruling Angor, which is filled with beings just like him having powers just like him, is nothing compared to becoming the only God-like being on Earth.” Reed says, shaking his head in disbelief.
“And why would he still want me to turn myself in? Didn’t he want me dead to take over Angor? Now, his sights are set on Earth.”
Shiloh takes a step toward me and puts a palm on my shoulder. “He can use you as bait. Kidnap you to lure King Elijah to Earth once a new portal is found. If he kills you AND the King, he’ll have full reign over both worlds.”
“Look, we can stand here talking about what Hyde may or may not do. But we won’t know until we come face to face with him tomorrow,” Commander Myers interrupts. “I think we all need to get some rest. We leave for Memphis in the morning. We will station at the portal and be ready for anything. He cannot follow through with his plan if we stop the rebels from busting him free.”
The group agrees with a collective sigh. Suddenly, the weight of everyone’s concerns lifts off my shoulders. We slowly start breaking apart, heading to dorm-style rooms. Chanel forced Julian and me to get separate rooms, concerned about how fast the anima mate was advancing. She made sure to send us plenty of scowling glances every time we kissed, hugged, held hands, or flirted over the past few days.